FAIR-in-action bridge
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Bridging the gap between FAIR guidance and everyday research practice
Many UK research-performing organisations have FAIR data policies. Many have guidance documents. What’s often missing is the middle layer – the practical, ready-to-use materials that let RDM professionals turn that guidance into something researchers actually engage with.
The FAIR-in-action Bridge is a BioFAIR Pathfinder project, led by coordinators of the ELIXIR-UK RDM Club, that sets out to fill that gap.
What we’re doing
We’re co-creating two FAIR-in-action playbooks with the RDM Club community and the wider UK community working on life sciences RDM:
- Playbook 1: How to approach FAIRification. Activities, templates and facilitator scripts that translate guidance from existing resources such as RDMkit, the FAIR Cookbook, FAIRsharing, WorkflowHub, Galaxy and the NIH FAIRification Framework into something an RDM professional can pick up, adapt and run with.
- Playbook 2: How to communicate and advocate FAIR. Scripted talking points, FAIR games and advocacy materials for engaging students, researchers, PIs and decision-makers.
Both playbooks will be roughly 80% ready-to-use, with placeholders for institutions to add their own policies, repositories and contacts. They’ll be openly licensed and indexed in RDMkit, the FAIR Cookbook, TeSS and Zenodo.
How we’re doing it
The project runs in two phases:
- Phase 1 – Co-creation. A series of contentathons brings together RDM Club members and the wider UK communities to scope, draft and refine the playbooks. Open to all.
- Phase 2 – National rollout. Six UK RPOs – three with mature RDM provision, three with emerging or specialised provision – will host one-day in-person events to test, adapt and refine the playbooks. Each event combines morning advocacy sessions for students and researchers with an afternoon FAIRification workshop led by local RDM staff with support from the project team. Open to all.
Why the RDM Club was key to this project
The ELIXIR-UK RDM Club connects more than 275 RDM professionals across 58+ UK research performing organisations and 29 international organisations. It’s been running since 2020 with sustained monthly activity, and it’s the natural home for this work – both for co-creation during the project and for sustainability afterwards. The Club will continue to host updates, adaptations, and peer learning around the playbooks long after the funding period ends.
Get involved
- Join a contentathon. See upcoming events below.
- Host a rollout. A call for expressions of interest from UK RPOs will open next week. Watch this space.
- Adopt and adapt. Once published, the playbooks are yours to use – and we’d love to hear how you got on.
- Join the RDM Club. Monthly calls, an active mailing list and a supportive peer community.
Upcoming events
Funded by
BioFAIR Pathfinder Project Call 2025.
